The (Little) Village People

So let me tell you about my kids. 

No, I haven't birthed any, although I have been here for 9 months now (if you read this on March 4). And I'm not a teacher, either. I don't even have any host siblings at site. But I want to talk about my kindergartners! 

I spend at least one day a week at the kindergarten/nursery school, so I'm obviously obsessed with some of these kids. Today we worked on our penguin dance for the International Women's Day program on Thursday, and I helped them with math and we got to play a little bit. I spend most of my time with the "Pregatitoare" (preparatory) class, so they're 6 and 7 years old, but my host mom is in charge of the "Ghiocelul" class, the 2- and 3-year-olds (Ghiocelul means "the snowdrop" so that's adorable). I have some favorites in there, too. 

There's a little troublemaker who is secretly adorable, and who passed me on the street once with his mom and told her who I was.

There's a boy who, before I learned his name, could only be described by smiling as big as possible, because that's what he always does. 

There are two cousins in the Ghiocelul class together who are always so sweet to each other!

There's a girl who asked me how old I was and when I told her, her eyes got big and she said, "You're so big! But also beautiful." 

There's a boy who seems to always wear sweatsuits, which are super cute on a 6-year-old.

There's the perfectionist, who has a special "poetry voice" and makes sure all of her crafts exactly match the example. 

There's the boy that got the whole class excited about the penguin dance as soon as he learned the part that goes, "Penguins, ATTENTION!" He seems tough but he'll cry at the drop of a hat. 

There's the girl who can't speak and might not be able to hear, but she sure loves to give hugs. 

There's the tiniest boy that has the best memory for poetry.

There's the girl that probably wants to talk to me but isn't as brave as the others.. But I can tell, and one day it's going to happen. 

There's the girl who carries the rest of the class when we do the penguin dance - she happens to be front and center and thank goodness, because she is awesome at it. 

And then there's the whole class who just wants to hug me after everything we do! I can't spend all day with them because they are 6 and I'm not, but.. The few hours are so precious, because they are just adorable. They want to know my parents' names and why I'm not wearing earrings like last time (guys, it's because I'm lazy sometimes) and how I got to the village from America (by plane, I said.. not fully accurate, but they were impressed).. 

I'm so excited for us to do the penguin dance for all the moms on Thursday! It will definitely be recorded so everyone can see the wonder that is the penguin dance in Romanian - this may turn out to be my greatest accomplishment so far.